The “Do you know” of the day. Do you know who wrote that Nancy “reminiscent of Strasbourg in less pretty”?
It was a funny time, in November 1939, since the war with Germany had just started. When she arrived in Nancy, the philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) discovered a deserted city, where all the shops were nevertheless open. She only understands a little later that she arrived in full air alert.
The 21-year-old woman has a first glimpse of the town, which she delivers in “La force de l’âge”, written in 1960. The one who has not yet published anything has obtained a permit to visit her companion, jean paul Sartre (1905-1980), mobilized in Alsace, at Brumath.
“I discover the main street, lined with Uniprix, cinemas, brasseries; it reminds Strasbourg in less pretty, ”she writes. She adds that “almost all the houses are barricaded by wooden palisades: the city seems like a huge camp”.
Place Stanislas and the Parc de la Pépinière are still found thanks to his eyes. Her journey will then continue to Brumath, where she enjoys a day: “disconcerted and disappointed”, she wonders if we will be able to continue these twenty-four hours.
As for Sartre, who had begun to make himself known before the war, the experience of mobilization, of the conflict and then of detention in Germany, will have a profound influence on him and will see him become a committed intellectual thereafter.
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